


No Book Unread

by BrenanaBread



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bookstore, Alternate Universe - No Powers, F/M, Fluff, Friendship, awkward teenagers, bookstores are great, i love friendship so much, no miraculous, please just let them all be friends
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-01
Updated: 2017-05-01
Packaged: 2018-10-26 02:53:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10777986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrenanaBread/pseuds/BrenanaBread
Summary: AU where Marinette and Alya work at the Dupain-Cheng owned bookstore and Adrien doesn't go to school with them.





	No Book Unread

**Author's Note:**

> I just like used bookstores and wanted to throw my children into it.  
> This is just the first half. The second half is mostly written, I just wanted to publish this asap.

Marinette groaned while lifting a large box of hardcover book onto the edge of the sorting table. Using the back of her hand to wipe the sweat from her brow, she shifted the box with her hip to a less precarious position, hoping the cheap folding table wouldn’t collapse beneath it.

“Marinette, I told you to leave all the heavy lifting to me.” Tom Dupain said, running over to his daughter though she had already finished her task.

Marinette turned to face her father. “Don’t be silly, Papa. I can handle some boxes,” her face broke into a reassuring smile. “I’m stronger than I look, you know.”

Tom chuckled heartily. “I know you can handle anything. But I’m selfish and you’re making me feel useless.”

“Oh, well if that’s the case I’ll call you for the next one. How does that sound?”

Tom’s full laugh rang out in the quiet storage room. “You are just too good to me.”

“I know. I really am the best daughter,” she said with a shrug of her shoulders.

A thud caught Marinette’s attention and another large box found its place next to the one Marinette had already put down.

“What’s this I hear about the best daughter? I _know_ you can’t mean Marinette over here when you’ve got me on your payroll.”

Marinette hip checked her intruding friend. “It’s cute that you think you even have a chance at stealing my parents’ hearts, Alya. I’m their one-and-only.” Marinette scrunched up her nose and stuck her tongue out at the redhead, a clear challenge in her voice.

“Oh really, Marinette? Because from where I’m standi-“

“You two are both ridiculous,” Tom cut in with a deep laugh. He clapped a hand on Marinette and Alya’s inner shoulders, squeezing lightly. “You ladies keep my life interesting.” With a final fond smile in their direction, he went back to his previous position, checking through the books that had recently been sent to the storage room.

Marinette lifted the top box she had just placed on the sorting table and began emptying its contents. Alya mimicked her friend’s movements with her own box, their hands moving quickly and surely, following muscle memory built up from years of practice. Flipping the books over and running fingers along the edges, the girls checked for any signs of damage. They carefully pressed the books open, feeling the spines' stiffness and carefully flipping through pages and scanning for rips. Their fingers gathered a dark gray hue from ink and dust and their backs ached from the time spent hunched over, but they continued without hesitation.

Lost in their own work-induced trances, Marinette and Alya hardly heard Sabine’s calls from the main room of the store.

“-inette! Alya! Someone’s here to see you!”

Alya grabbed Marinette’s hand to still her movements. “Come on, let’s go take a quick break and see who it is.”

Marinette barked out a laugh. “As if we don’t know who it is? Come on, Alya. It’s definitely for you.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Nino comes by the store at least three times a week.”

“Yeah, because he’s our _friend_.”

Marinette turned her body to face Alya head on. “That’s not why he comes here and you know it.”

Alya rolled her eyes indignantly and refused to make eye contact. “I absolutely do not know it.”

“Don’t pretend like you don’t love the attention. You’re crushing on Nino. And he obviously feels the same way. Last time he was here, he asked me if I was feeling better—“

“That’s a great example of how good a friend he is to you!” Alya snapped her gaze back to Marinette’s.

“Let me finish. When I asked him why he thought I hadn’t been feeling well, he said it was because I wasn’t in the store the day before. Which I had been. I’d even had a conversation with him that day about our Chemistry assignment. Let me reiterate, he didn’t remember talking to me _one day before_. That’s not just a bad memory, Alya. That’s a brain too occupied by something else to even pretend to store other information.”

“….so he’s not that observant?” she tried.

“Or, _or_ ,” Marinette said, taking hold of Alya’s shoulders and shaking the girl slightly. “The more likely option, he’s here for you.”

“Shut up. We’re just friends.”

“But you both don’t want to be _just friends_.” Marinette paused, waiting for Alya’s usual denial. When it never came, she squealed, “Oh my god. Are you finally accepting it?”

Alya sharply turned on her heel, not letting her friend see her face. “We don’t even know if he’s the one who’s actually here.”

Marinette smiled, mischief in her eyes. “Oh, do you want to bet on it?”

Rising to the challenge, Alya straightened her back. “Hell yeah,” she did a quick turnabout, once again facing Marinette. “If it’s just Nino stopping by to check in on us—“

“On _you_ ,” Marinette corrected.

“—then I’ll be your real life mannequin for a month. All the pin poking and prodding you could desire.”

Marinette smirked. “I like the way that sounds. And if you win?”

“You’re going to babysit my siblings the next three times my parents are out of town. And you have to confess that I’m your parents’ favorite daughter.”

“You literally aren’t related to them!”

Alya shrugged. “Those are my terms, take ‘em or leave ‘em.” She knew Marinette would never back down.

“Fine!” Marinette threw up her hands in mock aggravation. “It doesn’t even matter. I have a very strong suspicion you’ll be getting stabbed by pins soon enough.”

Alya huffed and grabbed Marinette’s wrist, pulling her into the main room of the bookstore where Sabine and their mystery visitor awaited. “We’ll see.”

Laughing at her friend’s melodramatics, Marinette allowed herself to be whisked away. Alya jumped up the tiny step separating the storage and selling rooms of the bookstore, dragging Marinette behind her. Marinette’s eyes crinkled from her giggles, limiting her vision. She miscalculated how far Alya had pulled her, and caught her foot on the half step her friend had just jumped onto. Yanking her wrist from Alya, Marinette let out a soft yelp as she tripped, twisting her body to avoid knocking over any book shelves. If she had a repeat of last week’s domino fiasco her parents would kill her.

Marinette’s hands instructively lifted to her chest to protect her from the ground, but she was surprised when she hit into a another body, a foreign hand rising to cup her elbow and keep her from toppling over.

Looking up at her savior’s wide eyes, Marinette let out a shriek.

“HA! LOOKS LIKE YOU’RE GETTIN’ STABBED, ALYA.”

Nino quickly dropped Marinette’s elbow and took a step back from his friend. “Ay, whoa, that sounds pretty serious. What’d Alya do now?”

“Oh nothing. She just bet on the wrong horse.”

His eyes sparkled and a low groan bubbled up from his gut. “Sounds like there’s a story here.”

“Well I wouldn’t say that.“ Marinette looked over her shoulder at Alya, who had become distracted by a blond customer animatedly talking with Tom. Lowering her voice so as to remain unheard by Alya, Marinette continued “but I’ll tell you all about it next weekend, if you’re free.” She winked at him, gesturing to Alya with a tilt of her head. She was very interested in letting Nino know about how seconds before his arrival, Alya did not deny her feelings for him.

Nino shot Marinette a questioning look. He knew that she was well-aware of his crush on her best friend. Though he’d never admitted to it, he wasn’t exactly subtle, and Marinette was no fool. If she had something she wanted to tell him without Alya knowing, it almost certainly had to do with his crush.

Alya laid a hand delicately on Marinette’s shoulder. “I hate to burst your bubble, but actually, I think you’re going to be busy next weekend.”

Marinette frowned. “What am I forgetting?”

With wide, innocent eyes, Alya smiled warmly and said “My parents are out of town next weekend, so you’ve got yourself a babysitting gig.”

“Excuse me for one second,” Marinette directed at Nino. Latching onto her arm, Marinette pulled Alya behind one of the stacks of books. “Earth to Alya. Do you see who that is? It’s Nino. Our friend Nino. I’ve won the bet. What part of this is tripping you up?”

Alya had perfected a standard, business-like smile. “Yes, that’s Nino.”

Marinette shot Alya a look.

“But no, you didn’t win the bet,” she added with a shake of her head.

With a groan, Marinette asked “where are you getting this from?”

Smiling, Alya explained, “the bet was whether or not it was _just Nino_ stopping by to check in on us.” 

“Checking in on _you_ ,” Marinette corrected.

Lifting her hand and flicking a wrist in the general direction of Marinette’s father, Alya added “that’s not _just_ Nino.”

“I don’t think a random customer matters in this case, Alya.” Marinette shook her head at the red head’s cheap tricks. “You’re not getting out of this one so easily.”

“Nope, I’m telling you, he’s here with Nino.”

“Fine. Prove it.”

“With pleasure.” Exiting their hiding spot behind the bookshelf, Alya called out to Nino “Hey, who’s your friend?”

Nino jumped at the Alya’s sudden volume in the mostly empty store. “Oh, uh this is the guy I was telling you about.” Nino turned his head to locate his friend. “Yo, Adrien! Get over here.”

“Whoa whoa _whoa_ ,” Marinette said, hooking a finger into Alya’s shirt collar and pulling until her friend’s face was centimeters from her own. “‘The guy I was telling you about’?” Marinette mimicked Nino’s voice. “As in, you _knew_ about this? That was not a fair bet!”

In a low, challenging voice Alya uttered, “I play to win, Ms. Dupain-Cheng”.

Marinette’s tone dropped. “Oh, you are so going to regret this.”

Nino leaned forward, breaking the bubble the girlss had crafted. “Sorry to interrupt your little love-fest ladies, but this is my bro, Adrien.”

Marinette kept her eyes on Alya, still furious at the girl. “Hi, Adrien,” she mumbled through gritted teeth.

Alya wrenched herself from Marinette’s grip. “Hey Adrien!” she said, a cheerful voice replacing her previously daunting one. “I’m Alya, and this is Marinette. Her parent’s own this place.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Alya,” Adrien said, offering a hand to the girl. He turned slightly, trying to catch Marinette’s eye, and held out his hand to her. “Marinette.”

His lips wrapped around her name like a warm spring breeze cutting through the stale winter air. Marinette’s eyes snapped to the boy’s and she suddenly wished they hadn’t. His eyes were passionately green, almost aggressively so, and she was afraid she’d never free herself from their pull. Her nose twitched and eyes stung from their lack of blinking. She couldn’t bear closing them and ruining the perfect image in front of her. Even in the dimly lit bookstore, he glowed. His blond hair radiated light and Marinette felt bathed in his warmth. He looked familiar, though she couldn’t immediately figure out why. She definitely hadn’t ever met someone so beautiful in her life.

Adrien’s smile never faded, even as it became obvious Marinette would not be shaking his hand. He let it drop from between them and grabbed his bag’s strap to have something to hold on to.

“Sorry, my girl’s been a little overworked as of late. And has apparently forgotten all social conventions,” Alya apologized on Marinette’s behalf. When her friend still didn’t make any move to acknowledge Adrien’s introduction, Alya put an arm around Marinette’s shoulders and started to steer her out of the showroom and into the sorting facility. “She’s probably just thinking about all the books we have to go through. Don’t miss us too much. We’ll be back in a flash!”

They rushed out of Nino and Adrien’s presence, Alya forcibly guiding Marinette.

They stopped as soon as they were safely away from the boys, and Alya grabbed Marinette’s shoulder. “Girl, what is _with_ you? You’re like the friendliest person I know, what happened out there?”

Her head dropped in shame, pigtails bouncing softly from the movement. “I don’t know. I just…froze I guess. Maybe it’s all the fumes? We are repainting the bathroom.”

Shaking Marinette’s shoulder, Alya cut through her bullshit. “Don’t be stupid. You clearly think Adrien is cute.”

“What?! No way! I mean, that isn’t to say that he _isn’t_ cute, just that I wasn’t thinking that! Not that I think he’s cute! He’s obviously very attractive, which I haven’t noticed at all, I’m just saying that because you said it, I have no opinions on that subject and we really should be getting back to work or at least I should get back to work, you can go talk to Nino and I guess Adrien. Unless Adrien’s not staying here! I don’t know why I assumed he’d be staying here, I don’t know what his plans are, I don’t know him at all and—“

“You only babble because you know I’m right,” Alya cut in. “He’s cute, and you’ve noticed.”

“I’ve noticed no such thing!”

Alya crossed her arms and cocked a hip. “Okay, so go talk to him, then.”

“…no.”

“And why not?”

“I’m…just so busy!” Marinette exploded, her hands twitching and she attempted to look busy.

Alya poked her head out the door, peaking into the main room. Their only customers were Nino, Adrien, and an elderly man, Charles, who visited the shop every Saturday morning and would stay deep into the afternoon.

“There’s no one here, Mari. You’re doing nothing.”

“I’m going through this box.” She lifted up a book and held it in Alya’s face to illustrate her point, shaking it around obnoxiously. “See? Work.”

“You can do other work. Go straighten some shelves. You can talk and straighten. You’re multitalented.”

Marinette couldn’t find a way around it without admitting how Adrien’s presence had flustered her. “…fine! But only to prove to you I do not think this guy is attractive.”

Alya looped her arm through Marinette’s. “Oh, of course.”

They walked back out into the shelves of books for sale, and Marinette quickly headed over to the children’s section. It was usually the messiest and required the most intensive straightening. The shelves were small, meant for the height of a toddler, so she had to squat low to the ground, essentially taking herself out of the sightline of the average adult. 

Feeling safe from any prying eyes, she let her guard down and fully concentrated on her task.

“Hey, Marinette,” a soft voice caressed her name.

Startled, Marinette let out a squeak and fell from her squatting position to her butt, squashing her fingers in the process. “Ouch, shoot,” she muttered, pulling her jammed fingers out from underneath her body.

Adrien dropped down beside her, taking her injured hand in both of his own. “Oh my god, I am so sorry. I really didn’t mean to startle you!” His fingers lightly traced her own, searching for any signs of damage.

“Ah, no, it’s fi-fine. I’m fine.” Her fingers tingled from his warm touch.

Adrien’s mouth stretched into a worried frown. Marinette wanted nothing more than to erase the unease in his eyes and replace it with the light that shone in them earlier. “Are you sure? I can get you some ice or something?”

“That’s unnecessary, really,” Marinette tried to convince him.

They were silent for a moment, Marinette splayed out on the floor from her spill, Adrien beside her, gently holding her hand.

“So, um, did you ah need something?” Marinette asked, her voice straining and unsure.

“Who, me? No!” Adrien dropped her hand like it burned him. “I just came over here because Alya and Nino were talking and M. Dupain left and so I was just wondering around the store…”

“Oh, he probably went back upstairs to get things ready for tonight,” Marinette said, shaking her head, not making eye contact with Adrien. Making eye contact with Adrien was dangerous. “It’s his and Maman’s anniversary. He’s always so last minute.”

Adrien gave her an inquisitive look for a moment before chuckling to himself. “Right, he’s your father. When I was talking with him, I didn’t realize he was the owner of this place.”

She laughed along with him. “Yeah, sometimes he seems a bit scatter brained to run this place. Maman does a lot of the more uh…structural things when it comes to running a business. He’s more of the um chatting with customers type of guy.”

Marinette didn’t miss the wistful smile that fleetingly overtook his lips. “Sounds like they make a pretty good team.”

“Ha, y-yeah, they do.” Marinette shifted uncomfortably in the silence that followed her statement. She had to stop herself from staring at him in their stillness.

After a significant moment of silence between them, Adrien spoke. “So, I was wondering, why is it called Miraculous? If you don’t mind.”

She made the mistake of her connected her gaze with his. “N-no, I don’t mind at all! Totally fine.” Adrien laughed lightly for a moment, his shoulders and head bouncing enough to jostle his perfectly swooped hair into his eyes. He slightly tossed his head to the right, forcing his golden hair out of his face. Marinette watched, absolutely entranced by the display and the ever-so-present sweet scent that billowed off his hair and snuck into her nose. Her pause dragged on for too long to be natural, and Adrien’s face fell to concern, reminding Marinette she had a story to tell. 

“Ri-ight! Um, so my parents f-first met when my mother visited Paris for a few couple of days with her uncle. I m-mean my uncle. Not her uncle. Her brother.” Adrien’s smile never faded, if anything growing larger, encouraging her to continue. “So, uh, they went t-to Paris together because my uncle was um thinking of taking a culinary internship here, Paris here, but he didn’t speak French really so maman would go around and translate for him, except he told her to not go with him when it came time for the actual interview because he wanted his food to do the talking, not my mother, because, you see, everyone just loves her as soon as they talk to her and he didn’t want that to affect how the culinary group saw him.” She panted from the long sentence. As long as she kept talking, she wouldn’t be able to psyche herself out. If the choice was between stuttering, and long, twisting paragraphs, she would choose the latter. 

“So, uh for the interview, she left her uncle, brother! She left her brother!” Embarrassed by her repeated mistake, Marinette spoke even faster. “And wandered around Paris by herself and she was so excited by its beauty that she stopped looking where she was going and soon enough she realized that she was completely lost. She found this tiny, used bookstore and stepped inside, hoping to ask someone for directions, but the place looked empty, and she didn’t know what to do, so she just looked around the stacks until she found this collection of poetry by Charles D’evry that she loved reading, and while she was flipping through the store’s copy, she saw all these beautiful annotations from its previous owner, a Thomas Dupain. She stood there reading for so long, and then a store clerk finally came back and asked if she needed any help, and my mother went to go buy the book, and the clerk seemed confused. He said that book wasn’t supposed to be for sale, it must have been accidentally left out and one of the other workers shelved it. And she was absolutely heartbroken. He asked if she was familiar with the poet’s work, and maman admitted to actually already owning a copy of that collection. The clerk asked her why she wanted to purchase it again, and she told him how she was in love with the annotations. And then the clerk asked her out. And maman was so confused! And he rushed to explain that he was Tom Dupain, and my mother was so shocked she said yes, and they went out and had the greatest time together, and papa said it was just miraculous that he found the love of his life through his old poetry book that wasn’t even supposed to be sold. So he named a bookstore after it.”

If possible, Adrien’s smile grew even wider. “Wow, it sounds like they were really meant to be.”

“They really are.” Marinette was lost in thought, basking in the rush of delight that came from sharing her parents’ love story. “You know, I’m sure—“ an angry alarm cut her off.

Adrien hopped to his feet with a feline grace, hand jamming into his pocket to retrieve the loud object. “Shoot, I really have to go.” He muttered something about ‘photoshoots’ and ‘never enough time’ that Marinette couldn’t quite make sense of. “It was wonderful to meet you, Marinette.”

“Uh-yeah! I-it was super wonderzing a-ah I mean amazerful to have acquaintance your made. Made your acquaintance!” Her stutter came back full force, and a horrified Marinette stumbled to her feet grasping at any semblance of her melting dignity.

The phone in his hand still held most of his attention as Adrien furiously texted his driver stating he would be outside in a minute. “Would you please tell Nino I left? I’m sure he’s completely forgotten all about me in his love-sick state, but I don’t want him to think I ditched him.”

“Of c-course! No problemo! Absolutely can do. Anything for yo-Nino! Anything for Nino! My good friend Nino.” Marinette brought the heels of her palms to her eyes, hoping to physically push her thoughts back into her brain and prevent them from tumbling out in a string of impulsivity. 

“Thanks!” Adrien called while walking towards the front entrance. “You have a lovely store! Tell your father I look forward to our continued discussion of classic literature!” He pushed open the front door quickly, surprising Marinette who knew the door was deceptively heavy. Whenever they needed to bring something into the store, they always had to do it through the back because none of their doorstops would keep the front door open.

Marinette let out a deep sigh. When had she become such a novice at talking to people? _Insanely attractive people_ but people nonetheless. She turned and walked to where Alya and Nino were overtly flirting by the gardening books.

As soon as she was within arm’s reach, Alya grabbed her around the waist, smushing their sides together. 

“See? Marinette here agrees with me.”

Marinete nodded automatically.

Nino threw his hands in the air. “You legitimately have no idea what she’s talking about, Mari!”

“I don’t need to know what she’s talking about. This is what’s known as _friendship_ , Nino.” Marinette smirked whilst tapping her knuckles to Alya’s.

“Gah, where’s Agreste when you need him.” Nino called out into the store,“Adrien, man! Come back me up.”

“Oh, he told me to tell you he left. Something about photos? Or something? I don’t know, he seemed really rushed.”

“Yeah, that kid is always running around. I knew he had a photoshoot today, but I thought it was later. Wait, what time is it?”

“Uh, a little after 16:00, I think?” Marinette desperately wanted to question ‘photoshoot’, but didn’t want to seem over eager.

“Damn, it’s later than I thought. I actually should probably go as well. Helping mom with dinner and all that.” Nino raised two fingers to his forehead in a mock salute, “See ya, Mari.” He turned to Alya and gave her a cocky grin. “I’ll see you next weekend, Alya,” he said with a wink.

Marinette turned to Alya with a cocky glint in her eye. “Guess I don’t mind babysitting for such a worthy cause.”

Alya punched her in the shoulder and shuffled off to straighten the shelves that lined the back wall.

**Author's Note:**

> For more content, check me out as [jattendschaton](http://jattendschaton.tumblr.com) on tumblr! I mostly just gush about miraculous, but I'm sure we'll have a good time together.


End file.
